Everyone loves rollover buttons, right? I know I do. In fact I often lose my time playing with interesting and exaggerated rollovers. Years ago, before I knew “better,” I’d challenge my teammates to see who could create the most unique, animated buttons for our e-learning courses. Fun times. If you’re creating rapid e-learning in PowerPoint […]
Flash CS4 for Elearning Production
Flash CS4 for Elearning Production One of the features my team is most excited about in Flash CS4 is the new object-based animation. This should significantly reduce a lot of basic elearning production times for tasks such as: Animated text and bullets; Simple image fades and transitions. Granted, Elearning is (should be) much more than […]
Avoid Cognitive Underload: Add Ambient Sounds to Elearning Scenarios
Can ambient sounds be used to enhance elearning scenarios without negatively impacting instructional integrity? There’s been some great conversation around the use of audio narration in elearning. Both Tom Kuhlmann and Cathy Moore have offered up some excellent examples on the appropriateness of audio narration in courseware. But what about incorporating background sounds to create […]
Captivate vs. Camtasia: Blend for Best of Both Worlds
The latest versions of Captivate and Camtasia confirm the screencasting & video tutorial industry is quickly evolving. As someone who’s created web-based video tutorials for almost ten years, I’ve tried just about every screen recorder developed. I still remember recording with HyperCam back in 1998. Trying to capture anything larger than 640×480 required a high […]
Made to Stick – Going the Extra Step in Elearning Design
One of the more meaningful books I read last year was Made To Stick. If you’re a learning professional, you need to read this book. There are many great examples on how to make ideas (read: training) “sticky”. In particular, the Beyond War scenario: Statistics are rarely meaningful in and of themselves. They will, and […]
Powers of Ten, Multimedia Communication and Flash Components
Just listened to last week’s podcast of Science Friday. Ira interviewed a guest who specializes in “big numbers” and who talked about how one goes about communicating such indescribable values. Just as I was about to shout “Eames video” at my iTunes, a caller referenced the famous Powers of Ten short film. The Powers of […]